Fixing the debt crisis in Greece Essay Example for Free

Fixing the debt crisis in Greece Essay Introduction: Central Idea: American officials exhorted their European counterparts to use Europe’s own resources to try to solve the crisis. Preview: Echoing past statements, Sarkozy and Merkel said banks should first raise money from the private sector before seeking state aid or money from the EU bailout fund. These issues must all be resolved, Merkel said. Its a painful process. Sarkozy stressed that the leaders are fully aware of their responsibilities, saying they have a moral, political and economical obligation to act decisively. The leaders are also working on how best to leverage the European Financial Stability Facility. The â‚ ¬440 billion fund, which was recently granted the power to intervene in sovereign debt markets and provide loans for governments that need to recapitalize banks, is widely seen as needing additional firepower. Its important to boost the emergency fund to protect the euro, said Merkel. But many EU governments have ruled out backing the fund up with additional loan guarantees. CANNES, France — President Obama plunged Thursday into the fast-moving European debt crisis, arriving here to exhort European leaders to get their financial house in order. But while the president hustled from meeting to meeting with world leaders, he was in many ways thrust into the rare position of bystander, as the unfolding drama over whether the Greek government would fall (it did not) and whether Greece would back the comprehensive accord to protect the euro reached last week (it will, at least for now) dominated conversations in the hallways and conference rooms here in this iconic seaside town. The grand Espace Riviera is more accustomed to red-carpet arrivals by movie stars and hangers-on for the Cannes Film Festival; on Thursday it was transformed instead into ground zero for blue-suited bureaucrats grappling with a financial crisis and the global contagion that it threatened. Instead of Angelina Jolie posing before the paparazzi, it was Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany holding a frozen smile as she greeted Mr. Obama in front of the cameras. There was little preening before the hundreds of reporters gathered from all over the world; President Nicolas Sarkozy of France quickly swept Mr. Obama into a meeting to discuss how to try to stop the unfolding Greek drama from turning into a tragedy, for global markets at least. Mr. Obama arrived early Thursday morning and, during an initial meeting with Mr. Sarkozy, he called the European financial crisis the most important task for world leaders gathered at the Group of 20 economic summit meeting. For Mr. Obama, the stakes are high. He has called the European financial crisis the largest headwind facing the American economic recovery, and he knows that his own re-election prospects are tied to how well the American economy does. But at the same time, his leverage is limited. In public, Mr. Obama largely stuck to his administration’s official message that Europe’s leaders must â€Å"flesh out details† about the plan they agreed to last week in Brussels to deal with the debt crisis in the 17 European Union countries that use the euro. But American officials, including Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, were huddled in private with their European counterparts trying to hash out an agreement that, at the very least, would stop the disintegration under way in Greece from spreading toItaly and Spain, a contagion that could further stymie America’s own anemic economic recovery. American officials exhorted their European counterparts to use Europe’s own resources to try to solve the crisis, instead of seeking bailout help from China. Obama administration officials point to the steps that the United States took to try to address its own financial crisis over the past three years. â€Å"Look, we went through this ourselves,† an Obama administration official said on Thursday, speaking on grounds of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. â€Å"They have the capacity to handle this within Europe.† Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said that the 2008 Wall Street crisis could provide insight on steps Europe should take. He maintained that the United States remains influential in advising its allies on how to deal with the problem, even if the United States is in no position to provide financial support. â€Å"The United States, obviously, has a great deal of influence, because of who we are and the role we play i n the global economy, and globally in general,† Mr. Carney said in a news briefing on Wednesday. â€Å"I would not discount the significance of the experience that we have in terms of its usefulness to the Europeans.† The Obama administration is not eager to see an increase in the resources sent by the International Monetary Fund to Europe; that might further mute American influence as the additional resources would most likely not come from the United States, but rather from Asia — and most likely China. â€Å"The I.M.F. has a substantial amount of resources to deal with a range of challenges in Europe and around the world,† said Benjamin Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. Michael Froman, the deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, said the turmoil in Greece and uncertainty over how exactly Europe plans to carry out its accord to cut Greece’s debt and shore up its finances â€Å"underscores the need to move rapidly toward the full elaboration and implementation of the plan.† Specifically, Mr. Froman said that the United States wants to make sure that Europe has â€Å"a firewall that is sufficiently r obust and effective ensuring the crisis does not spread from one country to another.† Mr. Froman said the United States was also trying to make sure that attention was also paid to stimulating economic growth, both in Greece and throughout the euro zone. Part of the anger among Greek citizens has stemmed from a belief that the euro agreement focuses more on Greek austerity and repaying the banks than on growth, a balance that many people fear could lead to higher unemployment rates as the Greek government cuts public sector jobs to pay its creditors and stabilize its finances. â€Å"I think right now the highest priority in Greece is stabilizing the situation,† Mr. Froman said. â€Å"But the program that Greece has is also about reforming its system and engaging in structural reforms, so that it could become more competitive and therefore grow as part of the euro area.† NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Europes top leaders said Sunday that they were getting closer to finalizing a plan to solve Europes debt crisis. But with a final agreement not expected before Wednesday, the actual details remained under wraps. The technical complexities are significant, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, adding that there are large amounts of money involved. The European Council, comprising government heads from all 27 members of the European Union, met Sunday in Brussels to hammer out a plan to boost capital levels for banks, enhance a government-backed rescue fund and provide debt relief for Greece. Speaking alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Sarkozy said in a midday press conference that the leaders had made progress on the ambitious and durable response to the long-running crisis. We would not be meeting on Wednesday if we were not really trying this time, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told CNN. Meanwhile, Merkel noted that EU finance ministers had made progress over the weekend on a solution for capital-starved banks. In principle, the finance ministers have agreed to funnel about â‚ ¬100 billion into banks to boost capital levels. But Merkel added that strengthening banks without resolving the debt crisis in Greece and supporting other nations with unsustainable debts will not work. Europes debt crisis: full coverageEchoing past statements, Sarkozy and Merkel said banks should first raise money from the private sector before seeking state aid or money from the EU bailout fund. These issues must all be resolved, Merkel said. Its a painful process. Sarkozy stressed that the leaders are fully aware of their responsibilities, saying they have a moral, political and economical obligation to act decisively. The leaders are also working on how best to leverage the European Financial Stability Facility. The â‚ ¬440 billion fund, which was recently granted the power to intervene in sovereign debt markets and provide loans for governments that need to recapitalize banks, is widely seen as needing additional firepower. Its important to boost the emergency fund to protect the euro, said Merkel. But many EU governments have ruled out backing the fund up with additional loan guarantees.

John Dillinger :: Essays Papers

John Dillinger On June 22, 1903 a man named John Dillinger was born. He grew up in the Oak Hill Section of Indianapolis. When John was three years old his mother died, and when his father remarried six years later, John resented his stepmother. When John was a teenager he was frequently in trouble. He finally quit school and got a job in a machine shop in Indianapolis. He was very intelligent and a good worker, but he soon got bored and often stayed out all night. His father began to think that the city was corrupting his son, so he sold his property in Indianapolis and moved his family to a farm near Mooresville, Indiana. John reacted no better to rural life than he had to that in the city and soon began to run wild again. At the age of 21 he attempted his first robbery, robbing a grocery store, in his home town. He was caught and imprisoned for nine years until 1933. Soon after he was released, Dillinger robbed a bank in Bluffton, Ohio and was arrested by the Dayton police. He was put in Lima county jail to wait for his trial. The Lima police found a document on John which seemed to be a plan for a prison break, but he denied everything. Four days later, using the same plans, eight of Dillinger's friends escaped from the Indiana State Prison, using shotguns and rifles which had been smuggled into their cells. During their escape, they killed two guards. On October 12, three of the escaped prisoners and a parolee from the same prison showed up at the Lima jail where Dillinger was. They told the sheriff that they had come to return Dillinger to the Indiana State Prison for violation of his parole. When the sheriff asked to see their credentials, one of the men pulled a gun, shot the sheriff and beat him into unconsciousness. They took the keys, freed Dillinger, locked the sheriff's wife and a deputy in the cell, and left. Leaving the sheriff to die on the floor. These four men’s fingerprint cards were pulled, indicating that they were wanted.

Article and lyrics comparison Essay

The songs â€Å"Have you Forgotten† by Darryl Worley, and â€Å"Where have all the flowers gone? † by Pete Seeger are two songs that both deliver strong messages regarding two different wars. â€Å"Have you Forgotten? † which is a song composed to convey emotions regarding the war in Iraq delivers messages that are meant to sway people to hate war. It describes the war and all its horrors by questioning if people have in fact forgotten what it is like to be in a war and so have become indifferent of the one that was currently being fought. â€Å"Where have all the flowers gone? † on the other hand, which is written during the period of the Vietnam war is another song written as a series of progressive questions terminating in the sad reality that the war in Vietnam had caused so many deaths. While the song does not in any way specify whose death had been more deserved or valued in the Vietnam War, it proceeds to question these deaths in an attempt to question the war itself. In an article, John Pareles describes that, â€Å"Songs that touched on the war in 2006 were suffused with the mournful and resentful knowledge† (2010) This is quite obvious in the song by Worley, for instance, in the lines from the chorus, â€Å"Have you forgotten, how it felt that day? / To see your homeland under fire/†¦And you say we shouldn’t worry bout Bin Laden†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (7-8, 12) the song seems to be didactic and even moralizing in its approach and its perception of how people perceived the war. These lines, in relation to what Pareles describes, are in fact resentful in that they express how people are indifferent about this particular war. In addition, Pareles (2010) also states that, â€Å"Immediate responses to 9/11 and to the invasion of Iraq arrived along familiar lines. There was anger and saber-rattling at first†. This expresses how the emotions had died down when the war had began to drone on. There was only the desired response initially which eventually died down. Hence, Morley’s song very accurately describes this indifference by questioning America about its stand on the war and how America can seemingly be uncaring of what was going on. So, in the last few lines of the song, one finds, â€Å"Have you forgotten / About our Pentagon / All the loved ones that we lost / And those left to carry on† (27-30) as the song shifts from being fierily questioning of the objectives for and reactions to the war to being deeply emotional, appealing to the better judgment of the listeners as if pleading that everybody be more reactive because the war was not just any kind of war, but it was something that took away so much from those who were in it. Songs during the Vietnam War were equally as questioning, perhaps because that particular also had grey areas when it came to the goals and objectives of the battle. â€Å"In 1963 musicians began directly questioning the Vietnam War. † (Anderson) and so, in the song â€Å"Where have all the flowers gone? † by Seeger, this questioning tone is also employed. However, noticeably in the song, as it progresses, the repeated lines go from questioning where the flowers are to where the graves are; (1-40) looking at each of the stanzas, however, the more interesting recurring line is â€Å"When will they ever learn? † (7-8, 15-16, 23-24, 31-32, 39-40) which serves the same function as the ‘Have you forgotten’ theme of the earlier song. So, in effect, this song by Seeger not only questions but also admonishes the listeners, perhaps because, â€Å"†Their music stated traditional folk themes, ones which were being voiced in the current civil rights crusade: justice, peace, and brotherly love. † (Anderson) Looking at these two songs side by side one can easily conclude that while both were about different wars at different periods the main message delivered is don’t people ever get tired of wars albeit the painful and agonizing effects of these exercises? So, if war songs are to be evaluated according to these two songs which are separated by decades in between, the sentiment of people when it comes to war has not changed significantly which is probably due largely to the reality that nobody wants wars regardless of the reasons. So, while both of the songs question the audience or the listeners, the questions in both songs are meant to indirectly remind the listener of the horrors of war and to admonish and enjoin the listener to remain faithful to the precepts of peace, justice and love while actively protesting whatever justifications the government makes for conducting these bloody exercises. Works Cited Anderson, Terry. â€Å"American Popular Music and the War in Vietnam. † (): 51-65. Print. Pareles, John. â€Å"Pop Music and the War: The Sound of Resignation. † New York Times. N. p. , 2 Jan. 2007. Web. 15 July 2010. . Seeger, Pete. â€Å"Where Have all the Flowers Gone. † arlo. net. N. p. , 2003. Web. 15 July 2010. . Worley, Darryl. â€Å"Have you Forgotten?. † Lyrics007. N. p. , 2007. Web. 15 July 2010. .

The Crucible By Arthur Miller - 1470 Words

â€Å"I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!† (Miller 45). In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, residents of Salem habitually ‘cry witch’, driven by dismay, suspicion, and retribution. Under a strict theocracy, where the court’s ruling and religious beliefs are exclusively bound to one another, death is practically inevitable for those branded as witches, their names perpetually tarnished. From atop his high horse, one may look upon The Crucible and harshly judge the irrational actions of Salem’s community; however, human emotion drove these injudicious acts, the very raw emotion that often overpowers logic in today’s society. Though theocracy has dissolved in America, one can never†¦show more content†¦Fear that witches were truly among the community of Salem, performing dark magic and wreaking havoc, propelled witch hunters to raid the town. Paranoia. The declarati on of Salem’s most admired individuals to have been involved in witchcraft gave residents the excuse to suspect any soul of wrongdoing. Vengeance. Jealousy and dislike spurred citizens to accuse their foes, utilizing witchcraft to justify their personal vendetta. When Salem’s women were stigmatized as witches, two groups were born. Those who believed in the children’s witchcraft allegations, acting primarily on emotion, and those who declared the children of pretense, acting predominantly on logic. However, the group motivated by fear, paranoia, and vengeance greatly outnumbered those driven by logic in both strength and size. Thus this group, experiencing a psychological phenomenon called groupthink, can be held accountable for the execrable Salem witch trials. Irving Janis, a social psychologist, studied how social behavior is influenced in group settings. In 1972, he coined the name ‘groupthink’ to describe observed behavioral changes in individuals belonging to groups. Groupthink is characterized by a group’s pursuit for unity, often resulting in individual members disregarding or altering their own beliefs to coincide with the majority, or group’s, beliefs. This disregard or altercation ensures that the group stays unified; however, results in the group committing illogical actions without considering